The Federal Communications Commission has demanded—and received—the paid peering agreements Netflix signed with Comcast and Verizon, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced today. While Wheeler said the commission has "broad authority," he didn't promise to take any action beyond gathering information. "To be clear, what we are doing right now is collecting information, not regulating," he said.

When Netflix revealed that it had started paying Comcast for a direct connection to its network, ending a long squabble over money, Comcast subscribers almost immediately started seeing better video performance.

Earlier this month, the FCC voted in favor of a pretty thoroughly terrible proposal that would kill net neutrality as we know it. A proposal that would give broadband companies an absurd amount of powers that they themselves delineated. A proposal that would also give Verizon (and broadband carriers in general) the ability to act as internet gatekeeper—playing favorites and charging whatever the hell they damn well please.

Verizon will monitor not just mobile activities but also what customers do on wired or Wi-Fi-connected computers, then share that data with marketers.

The carrier will monitor not just your wireless activities but also what you do on your wired or Wi-Fi-connected computers, then share that data with marketers.

Google is reportedly considering running its own wireless network. Sources tell The Information that company executives have been discussing a plan to offer wireless service in areas where it's already installed Google Fiber high-speed internet. Details are vague, but there are hints that it's interested in becoming a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO, buying access to a larger network at wholesale rates and reselling it to customers.

Telecom giants AT&T and Verizon Communications are lobbying states, one by one, to hang up the plain, old telephone system, what the industry now calls POTS--the copper-wired landline phone system whose reliability and reach made the U.S. a communications powerhouse for more than 100 years.

The setting was ornate, the subject esoteric, but the implications huge. The crowd that filed last month into the wood-paneled room 226 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building included lawmakers, lobbyists, company executives, and a few mystery guests — a roster that reflected the enormity of the issue at hand: nothing less than control of the growing wireless market and the hundreds of billions of dollars that go with it.

This is probably not how Verizon wanted things to play out. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has long crowed about the fact that his carrier “never has and never will lead on price” while also recently declaring that unlimited data plans were a dead end despite being offered by both Sprint and T-Mobile. Now, however, Verizon has been dragged into the price wars after aggressive moves from T-Mobile similarly forced AT&T’s hand. Verizon on Thursday announced its new MORE Everything plans that will cut...

Robbo sez, "Dave Raphael of Dave's Blog has an interesting post about a conversation he recently had with Verizon support and discovered some uncomfortable - yet wholly unsurprising - truths about how Verizon is selectively limiting bandwidth to AWS services and adversely affecting the quality of Netflix. The open admission of this by Verizon support was unexpected - but the fact it is happening should be of no surprise to anyone but the ignorant and naive."

A decade ago, we wrote about how Verizon had made an agreement in Pennsylvania in 1994 that it would wire up the state with fiber optic cables to every home in exchange for tax breaks equalling $2.1 billion. In exchange for such a massive tax break...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Vodafone and Verizon Communications, which have joint ownership of Verizon Wireless, have reached a deal this weekend to sell Vodafone's 45 percent stake in the United States' largest wireless company to Verizon for $130 billion in cash and stock.